Abstract:
Air pollution has been identified as one of the silent killers in the present
world as pollutants are killing people without making any noise. Air pollution is a
disaster which destroys human life gradually unlike other disasters. People can see,
understand and experience when environmental disasters occur. However, people
cannot see or understand when air pollution is taking place until people are affected
physically.
This study attempts to examine the spatial partem of sulfur dioxide and
nitrogen dioxide in the city of Colombo using the data collected by the National
Building Organization (NBRO) from January, 2003 to December, 2005.
Specifically, the main objective of this study is to explore the reasons for
aggravating air pollutants in the city. Some-socio economic data which used as
explanatory variables for the spatial pattern of air pollutants were collected from
different government organizations.
GIS techniques such as spatial interpolation, spatial query and geostatistics
techniques were adopted to analyze data. It has been identified that there is a highly
significant periodic changes of contamination of pollutants with the rainy seasons.
By using grid regression analysis, traffic density has been identified as the most
significant explanatory variable amcng the selected socio economic variables.
Characteristics of traffic fleet highly influence for the degradation of air quality in
the city of Colombo.
